Why I am Making Strides

Because I know I will make a difference in the fight to end breast cancer. I know that by raising funds and walking in the American Cancer Society Making Strides Against Breast Cancer event, I will help save lives from breast cancer.

Because every day I am able to take in another breath, laugh, love, be with my family, spend time with good friends and hear my little’s giggle is another day I am a survivor!

Because I know all too well the chaos and fear it brings into your soul, mind, body and life.

Because I know personally, the impact of what the generosity and kindness of others have on an individual’s life.

Because every little bit really does help.

AND

I believe that one-day breast cancer will never steal another year from anyone’s life. Making Strides is not only my opportunity to join my community to fight back against breast cancer, but it is also a way to inspire hope by raising funds and awareness to help those facing the disease.

Oh, and because my doctor cleared me :)

That’s why I’m walking.

Who I am Making Strides For

I am making strides for myself and any other woman who has had to experience the hell that a Breast Cancer diagnosis brings. I am making strides because I am now a part of the statistics. I am making strides because this is my opportunity to celebrate breast cancer survivors, remember those lost, and help raise funds for groundbreaking research as well as information and services for people fighting breast cancer.

Why I Support the American Cancer Society

Every day, the American Cancer Society helps people take steps to reduce their risk of breast cancer or find it early when it is easiest to treat. They provide free information and services when and where people need it throughout their journey to get well. They are investing in groundbreaking research to find, prevent, treat, and cure breast cancer, and are working to ensure access to mammograms for women who need them.

I have signed up to walk and fundraise with Making Strides Against Breast Cancer. I hope you will consider joining my team and/or making a donation in support of my efforts.

For those of you that don’t know activEngage is the industry leader in automotive live chat solutions.

Since our offices are only a hop, skip, and a jump away from the Maitland, Florida based offices of activEngage, we like to stop by and visit with the owners to share notes on the industry and stay up to date with their latest and greatest. We are big fans of their company and often refer them as a chat vendor to our current automotive website design customers looking for a state of the art managed chat solution.

On one of our previous visits to their offices we discovered that they have a great gaming area for their staff which includes a ping pong table. One of the items on our agenda for our visit this week was for myself and our Director of Product Development, Phil Anderson, to challenge the best activEngage had to offer in a ping pong challenge!

Apparently we had great timing as they had recently finished a ping pong tournament and they had crowned the “ping pong wizard”, Nate Smith (Inside Account Executive), as their champion. Since Phil and I are the resident ping pong champions here at Drive Digital Group, we couldn’t resist a friendly test of our table tennis might against the best activeEngage had to offer.

I have to say that Nate put up a great fight, but in the end both Phil and myself defeated him in Mortal (ping pong) Kombat! This victory has led us to believe that there is a distinct possibility that there is no other automotive company that can defeat our guys in a heads up Ping Pong Challenge.

We know there are many Florida based automotive companies that might think they have what it takes to give us a run for their money and I say to those companies that this is an open challenge. We hereby proclaim ourselves the Southeastern Automotive Ping Pong Champions! We invite anyone to openly challenge us at any time to see if they have what it takes to claim the title for themselves. Right down the road from us is Dealers United, we don’t know if they have any Ping Pong players on staff, but if they do we openly challenge them to a tournament at the time and place of their choosing!

Automotive Digital Marketing Company

We are currently in the running in the start-up category. This means our company has been in business less than three years. Bright House is giving away over One Million dollars in prizes including:

Commercial TV Production

Air Time

Customer Newsletter

Feature News Story

Cash

Our category has already been through two cutting phases which we have passed. The final challenge will be a six minute pitch that will be taped in front of a live audience on February 18th at the Lowry Park Zoo in Tampa, Florida. The show will be hosted by Kevin Harrington (formerly of Shark Tank). We will not only be presenting for a recorded show in front of a live audience, but the audience will also get to pick the “Audience Choice Award” for the best presentation at the event! We are hoping to bring home first place at the award and also grab the Audience Choice Award as well.

The winner of the Start-up category will be announced at the Regional Business Awards Gala at the Hilton Tampa Downtown on February 27, 2014. If you are in the area you should join us for a wonderful evening that includes a celebration of our region, live music and the following guest speakers:

Yesterday our CEO Adam Rouff and our CIO Chris Burns attended a taped show in front of a live audience giving a six minute pitch to former Shark Tank judge Kevin Harrington. Take a look at some of our behind the scenes pictures of our event experience below.

The event was featured on the local Bay News Channel 9 this morning. You can see our leadership on the cover image and there is a linked video which includes some footage of Chris and Adam being interviewed by the news team about their pitch experience.

Chris and Adam arrived at the event around 2:00 PM yesterday at the Lowery Park Zoo in Tampa. They had plenty of time to tour the zoo and the event facility before the event rehearsal at 3:00 PM. They spent several hours backstage getting to meet the other four contestants and being prepped with make-up for the show. They spent their free time polishing their six minute pitch.

At 4:00PM the live audience was allowed into the studio seating and at 5:00 PM the show kicked off with a live DJ and a panel of four judges led by ex Shark Tank judge Kevin Harrington.

At 5:30 Drive Digital Group took the stage as the third presenter out of five contestants. Although there were some technical glitches with the Power Point, Chris and Adam managed to have a really strong presentation which was followed up by a question and answer session with the judges. The judges asked some great clarifying questions and our teams impression was that our answers to their questioning really helped the judges to fully appreciate our company’s value proposition. At one point Kevin Harrington smiled and looked at Chris & Adam nodding his head with the simple statement “I get it now”.

After the show there was an hour of mingling at the venue with Chris and Adam had a chance to personally speak with the judges and some of the other companies that attended the show. It was a great chance to make a last impression on the judges before the final decisions are made about who will win the start up category.

Next Thursday (February 27th) there will be an awards gala at the Hilton in downtown Tampa. The award ceremony will also be recorded to complete taping of the “Pitch 6” show which will be aired as a pilot show on one of the Bright House channels which has not been announced yet. Drive Digital Group is hoping to bring home the cash prize, the year of free advertising on the Bright House networks, and most importantly the title of the best start up business in the region!

We hope to report back next week that we won our category! If anyone is in the Tampa area we hope you stop by and see us if you plan to attend the show.

The Food Pantry program serves the families of Woodland Middle School and is available to families in need that have a student at the Middle School in Venice, Florida.

The pantry is open twice per month for the school families. The program relies on food donations from local companies like Drive Digital Group in addition to the local food bank. 68% OF THE Woodland Middle School family’s population is on free or reduced lunch programs. Last year Ms. Rowland’s pantry program provided Thanksgiving dinners to roughly 30 families across the pantry with some 8 and 10 children.

This is a great program started by a local high school teacher built to help families of the school in need. Drive Digital Group was fortunate enough to be able to participate this year and we strongly recommend all companies reach out to their communities and also do what they can to enrich the families in the communities they serve.